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The Love Apple

Nothing says Summer like a vine ripened heirloom tomato. In the Spring when the weather is beginning to warm up I start dreaming of tomatoes-juicy flavourful heirloom tomatoes from my garden!

What is the difference in an heirloom tomato and the typical small hard tomatoes you buy at the market with signs saying “tomatoes”? You know what I am talking about those cardboard mealy textured ones with bitter seeds you see piled up at the market. You buy them to put in salads knowing they may look like a tomato, but they don’t taste like a tomato. That is why your kids pick them out of the salads. ICK!

When I say TOMATOES what I am talking about is one of those gorgeous “ugly” shaped tomatoes. You know the ones that grandma used to grow-huge but never perfect. The kind of tomato that when you slice it - one slice covers a piece of bread, the ones that when you bite into them you have juice running down your chin! Yes those are the ones that taste of summer.

I mean they taste like tomatoes should taste. To me Summer is a Bacon, Tomato, Avocado, mayo sandwich on two slices San Francisco sour dough bread lightly toasted. Now we’re talking yum-factor. These are so messy to eat-oh yes-juice running down to your elbows, eat over the sink type yum.If you have a passion for the Love Apple I know just the place to enjoy 350 varieties of tomatoes, and over 60 dishes prepared with the tomato as hero and and sip some of the offerings from some 40 wineries.

Did you know tomatoes are the number one veggie grown in home gardens? Of course the term vegetable is debatable as the tomato is actually botanically a fruit. 0ne of the strangest things about the history of the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is the fact that, although it is of American origin, it was unknown as food in the US until long after it was commonly eaten in Europe. Until hardly more than a hundred years ago it was generally thought to be poisonous in the United States. Long before it was considered here as fit to eat, it was grown only as an ornamental garden plant, sometimes called "love apple – which is still the fondly used name.

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08/29/2007 - 14:02

I do not know why I am getting such blanks and spacing on articles. Anyone know? The articles are getting chopped off. Fortunately I do the original in word, but can't figure out the weirdness of the resulting formating. It is simply cut and pasted from Word.

Figured out the spacing formatting issues it is the old hard return of paragraphs I think.
Videos, yes either buy new batteries for an old JVC video camera at $90 a pop or buy a new video camera.
Think I'll have a Big Greek Salad today, no wait I have bacon in the fridge, but no avocado.......

very nice article................Tomatoes are now eaten freely throughout the world, and their consumption is believed to benefit the heart among other things. Lycopene, one of nature's most powerful antioxidants, is present in tomatoes, and, especially when tomatoes are cooked, has been found beneficial in preventing prostate cancer

Time to figurre out the must grow list of heirloom tomatoes for 2012! Anyone do any grafting on tomatoes? peppers? eggplants? I think I'll give it a try this year. More production and more disease resistant.